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James E.
Kostrava is President and Owner of Funding Freedom, an
organizational management and fund raising firm, and the Executive Vice
President of MITECH+, Inc., a non-profit organization located in
Midland, Michigan, which promotes skilled trades and technical careers.
Mr. Kostrava served as the President & CEO of the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber of Commerce in Mt.
Pleasant, Michigan, from 2004 to 2007.
From 2000 to 2002 he served as vice president for
external relations for the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE),
Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. FEE is the oldest free-market educational
organization in the world, founded by Leonard E. Read in 1946. Its monthly
magazine, Ideas on Liberty, is the longest continuously published
magazine dedicated to individual liberty in the United States. FEE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting free
markets, private property, limited government, and the rule of law.
From 1995 to 2000 Mr. Kostrava served as vice
president for development for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, an
independent, non-profit research and educational organization located in
Midland, Michigan. The Mackinac Center is the largest of the 38
state-focused free-market public policy research institutes in the United
States, and it is considered to be one of the most influential.
Mr. Kostrava spent most of his career in the
construction industry, first working as an account executive for
Contractor’s Weekly, a construction newspaper in Seattle, Washington.
Next, he worked for the F.W. Dodge Division of McGraw-Hill Information
Systems Company as a District Accounts Sales Representative. He held sales
positions in Cleveland, Atlanta, Detroit, and Stamford, Connecticut.
Mr. Kostrava spent more than 12 years of his career at the Construction
Association of Michigan in Bloomfield Hills where he was vice president -
marketing. In that position, he was chairman and founder of the Design & Construction Expo, now the largest
construction exposition and trade show in the Midwest, held annually at
the Pontiac Silverdome.
He is past chairman of the Construction Activities Committee of the
Engineering Society of Detroit. Kostrava was a founding director of the
Construction Innovation Forum and in 1997 CIF honored him as a Board
Member Emeritus. The Construction Innovation Forum is an international
organization that conducts the annual NOVA Awards to recognize innovations
in the construction industry that improve the quality, efficiency, and
cost effectiveness of construction.
Immediately prior to joining the Mackinac Center he served as executive
director of the President's Club for the Oakland University Foundation in
Rochester, Michigan.
Mr. Kostrava earned his bachelor of arts degree in Advertising from
Michigan State University in 1975. In 1983 he attended the Graduate School
of Business Administration, MBA program, at the University of Detroit.
In 1990 he earned distinction as a Certified Association Executive through
the American Society of Association Executives in Washington, D.C. Less
than two percent of association executives throughout the United States
hold this certification. In 1991 he earned a Certificate of Achievement:
Principles, Techniques of Fund Raising, at Indiana University - Purdue
University at Indianapolis.
Mr. Kostrava serves on the Board of Directors of the Middle Michigan
Development Corporation. He is a member of the American Society of
Association Executives, American Chamber of Commerce Executives,
Michigan Chamber of Commerce Executives, Central Michigan University
President’s Mt. Pleasant Advisory Board, Mt. Pleasant International
Relations Committee, the Michigan Society of Association Executives, and
the Mt. Pleasant Airport Advisory Board. He is a founding director and
Board Member Emeritus for the Construction Innovation Forum and past
Chairman of the Construction Activities Committee of the Engineering
Society of Detroit. Mr. Kostrava serves on the Mt. Pleasant Community
Foundation Scholarship Committee. In 2006, Mr. Kostrava was elected Vice
Chairman of the Mt. Pleasant Downtown Development Board.
“…I apologize
for writing you such a long letter, but I simply did
not have the time to write you a short one.” -- George Bernard Shaw
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